Stephanie's journey from soccer mum to the face of World Cup

FOR television sports fans who haven't yet seen Stephanie Brantz
on SBS, she'll soon be hard to miss.

She's making the transition from soccer mum to football host as
a Sydney-based anchor of June's World Cup finals coverage from
Germany, alternating in the chair with colleagues Andrew Orsatti
and Mike Tomalaris.

And in what's tipped to be a record-breaking ratings year for
SBS - with Australia featuring in the World Cup showdown for the
first time in 32 years - Brantz also figures prominently in SBS's
revamp of its sporting flagship, Toyota World Sports.

She'll front the program on weeknights with SBS's respected head
of sport Les Murray in a new double header format from March 6, a
move designed to broaden the daily sports program's appeal.

"I think there's an element of perhaps the master and apprentice
about it," Brantz said. "I certainly feel like I've still got a lot
to learn, certainly from Les and the other guys who present the
various shows . . . you're picking up things all the time.

"What better way to learn than live television - sometimes
embarrassingly, but generally the audience is quite kind, I
hope."

Queensland-born Brantz, who has two sons - Patrick, 11, and
Lewis, 6, and a daughter, Lindsay, 4 - nominates basketball,
cricket and rugby league among her favourite sports, but said
football recently moved to the top of her list.

And her education in the sport is firmly at grassroots level, as
a soccer mum, with the two boys about to kick off their respective
seasons.

Having clocked up 15 years as a model, Brantz has unassumingly
progressed through the on-air ranks at SBS, after joining the
network in 2000, recently taking on a back-up role for the busy
Murray.

Until now, her naturopathy business at Newtown is where she
derived her main income, but it will soon become a sideline, with
on-camera duties about to shift up a gear.

Brantz delights in fuelling that Queensland-NSW rivalry in SBS's
Artarmon studios by declaring herself a fan of the A-League's
Queensland Roar.

The team's orange colours also tied in well with her Dutch
ancestry, she noted, adding that her command of her parents' first
language is "adequate", especially for pronouncing the Socceroos
coach's name.

"I don't get much practice. It bodes you well when you have to
pronounce Guus Hiddink and you can hear the rest of Australia
mangling it," she said. "You reckon that's what got me over the
line?"

Seeing her boys trying to imitate Australians - specifically
some of the Socceroos stars - rather than players from overseas -
has given her a deep sense of satisfaction.

"That's nice, seeing your kids kick around in the back garden
and pretend to be [John] Aloisi or keeper Mark Schwarzer. Before
they would have been hard put to name some of the national team,
apart from maybe [Harry] Kewell or [Mark] Viduka."

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